There has been a lot of homelessness coverage in local media over the past couple of months, beginning with the major story in the October 24, 2015 Sacramento Bee, Homeless in Sacramento: A death on the streets, about the life and death of Genny Lucchesi; continuing with several other Bee editorials, as well as the ongoing protest by the homeless in front of city hall concerning the city law about illegal camping.

For many years our approach to the homeless issue—driven by our mission to preserve, protect and strengthen the Parkway which suffers terribly from the negative impacts of illegal camping by the homeless—has been based on researching existing programs that are successful and calling for their implementation in Sacramento.

Regardless of all the reasons people become homeless, regardless of all the successes or failings of current homeless service strategies, and regardless of the politics involved; we need to help the homeless in a much more comprehensive way than we are now doing.

We need to provide safe, secure and sheltered sleeping accommodation for the entire Sacramento homeless community not yet being served; and the only working model we have found that accomplishes this is a homeless transformation campus like Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas.

A homeless transformation campus would consist of two main aspects: one a program that helps people get out of being homeless with conditions of behavior that have to be met to receive help; and another, offering free and unconditional sleeping arrangements, whether tents or tiny houses, whatever the community is able to provide to make up for the shortage of safe, secure and sheltered sleeping already available.

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About David H Lukenbill

I am a native of Sacramento, as are my wife and daughter. I am a consultant to nonprofit organizations, and have a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior and a Master of Public Administration degree, both from the University of San Francisco.
We live along the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed.
I am the founding president of the American River Parkway Preservation Society and currently serve as the CFO and Senior Policy Director.
I also volunteer as the President of The Lampstand Foundation, a nonprofit organization I founded in 2003.